Overtime Meant Missing The Last Bus Home, But Their Supervisor Had A Plan To Keep Everyone From Getting Stranded
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Imagine working at a company’s call center. It could be tricky leaving work on time if you get stuck on a phone call past closing time.
In this story, one supervisor really doesn’t want his employees to have to work overtime because he knows it would mean that they would miss their bus home. He had a plan that worked for awhile, but then his manager found out and didn’t like that plan at all.
Then, his wife had an idea that ended up being really effective and worked for years. Keep reading for all the details.
You need to speak to the supervisor.
So about 20 years ago I was the aupervisor of a small group (3 including me).
My two subordinates, lets call them Linda and Bob, spent their days answering phone calls for the company.
These two were awesome. Their call averages were under 3 minutes and it was constant calls.
They almost never received complaints or had to escalate the call to me as the supervisor. I’m talking maybe a couple of times in a year.
OP sounds like a very considerate supervisor.
We were in a large city and they both took transit to work. They got off work near the start of rush hour.
This is important because missing the early bus could mean an easy hour delay in getting home.
Our phones were controlled by computer and at quitting time they would play a message that we were closed but any calls in the queue had to be answered.
Since I was there for an hour past closing, I would have them log out and I would take the calls. It was a small thing I could do to help them.
The manager sounds annoying.
The problem.
My manager was reviewing the call logs and noticed the pattern. He demanded an immediate end to the practice.
So, for a week I had my two wonderful employees routinely stuck answering calls past closing and missing their buses.
Then my brilliant wife said something that gave me an idea.
This really was a good idea.
The solution.
On Monday morning before work I spoke to Linda and Bob and mentioned that if there were any late calls that needed a supervisor, to remember that I worked an hour later than the and not to worry if they needed transfer calls.
Linda caught my meaning (I think she had to explain it to Bob).
The plan worked!
It was amazing how many calls needed a supervisor at closing.
Of course the reports showed they answered the calls but they didn’t recorde transferred calls.
Best of all no more missed busses.
I love how well this plan worked!
We did this for almost 5 years until I moved to a new position.
Both Linda and Bob are retired now but we stll laugh about this.
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To my knowledge my manager never knew what we did.
Wow! OP’s wife had a really good idea!
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person thinks he’s a good supervisor.
Another person thinks the plan was smart.
This person agrees that the plan was smart.
Here’s praise for OP and his wife.
He really is a great supervisor, and his wife came up with a wonderful workaround. The manager had no idea what was really happening. He just saw who answered the calls and was happy, but the employees didn’t have to miss the bus.
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